Comments on: SQL Server on VMware Server http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/ All Things Considered Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:32:04 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: SQL Server on VMWare « Bright Shiney Objects http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6511 SQL Server on VMWare « Bright Shiney Objects Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:15:21 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6511 [...] are usually related to having multiple VMs on the same machine and/or with mis-configured storage. This guy isn’t so sure. He describes some real life issues with a virtual versus a physical SQL Server [...] [...] are usually related to having multiple VMs on the same machine and/or with mis-configured storage. This guy isn’t so sure. He describes some real life issues with a virtual versus a physical SQL Server [...]

]]> By: payne http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6478 payne Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:18:23 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6478 I hope this is not a stupid question, but can anyone tell me if using Symantec net backup would be an acceptable and troublefree way to backup our SQl server instances as follows? We are in testing stage -only one user deployed: we have ESX upon which Win 2k3 server is running. Installed on the Win2k3 Server are multiple instances of SQL server express 2005 linked to multiple Recorder 6 (hybrid biological databases) which are also installed on the Win2k3 server. There is a single Citrix Zen app 5 installed on the win2003 server. The Citrix app serves up the various recorder 6 apps to where they are required to users on our Novell network. Our IM department has proposed to use Symantec/Veritas Net Backup to backup the entire Win2003 server instead of using the SQL management console to run individual backups. I hope this is not a stupid question, but can anyone tell me if using Symantec net backup would be an acceptable and troublefree way to backup our SQl server instances as follows?
We are in testing stage -only one user deployed: we have ESX upon which Win 2k3 server is running. Installed on the Win2k3 Server are multiple instances of SQL server express 2005 linked to multiple Recorder 6 (hybrid biological databases) which are also installed on the Win2k3 server. There is a single Citrix Zen app 5 installed on the win2003 server. The Citrix app serves up the various recorder 6 apps to where they are required to users on our Novell network. Our IM department has proposed to use Symantec/Veritas Net Backup to backup the entire Win2003 server instead of using the SQL management console to run individual backups.

]]> By: Blaine http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6460 Blaine Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:02:15 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6460 I am running SEL 10 and VMware Server 2.0 we had similar issues with reiserfs and switched to ext3. We are using an Areca (ARC-1231) Raid Controller with 1GB cache. I have found that performing snapshots while the system is running will produce useless snapshots because I recovered from one and the database was totally corrupted. If you shut the VM down and take the snapshot everything is fine. I have not tested the new features with the latest VMware Server 2.0 that use VSS to quiesce the database during snapshots. If you have let me know. I am planning on doing some testing tonight or tomorrow. I am running SEL 10 and VMware Server 2.0 we had similar issues with reiserfs and switched to ext3.

We are using an Areca (ARC-1231) Raid Controller with 1GB cache.

I have found that performing snapshots while the system is running will produce useless snapshots because I recovered from one and the database was totally corrupted. If you shut the VM down and take the snapshot everything is fine.

I have not tested the new features with the latest VMware Server 2.0 that use VSS to quiesce the database during snapshots. If you have let me know. I am planning on doing some testing tonight or tomorrow.

]]> By: Chrissy LeMaire http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6451 Chrissy LeMaire Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:20:59 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6451 What an incredibly informative post; thanks Scott! I was concerned about migrating my SQL 2K8 server to an ESXi server and now I feel much better. Terence, please consider making a blog post with everything you've discovered! I'm running VMware Server 2 with SuSE 11.1 but haven't tweaked it just yet. A post like that would be super helpful :) What an incredibly informative post; thanks Scott! I was concerned about migrating my SQL 2K8 server to an ESXi server and now I feel much better.

Terence, please consider making a blog post with everything you’ve discovered! I’m running VMware Server 2 with SuSE 11.1 but haven’t tweaked it just yet. A post like that would be super helpful :)

]]> By: Terence http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6389 Terence Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:26:03 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6389 Nice article. I've been using vwware for the past 4 years and each year I manage to tweak it a bit more. Many of my clients cant afford those expensive SCSI/fibre channel systems but ext3 can be tweaked...as can be mdadm (software raid) I use OpenSuse 11 with the kernel heavily optimized...I cut down as much as I can from it. 1. add nodiratime,noatime,commit=60 up to 300 to the mount of the drive 2. set read ahead of drive to 1MB blockdev --setra 1024 /dev/sda 3. Set read ahead drive cache echo 256 > /sys/block/sda/queue/read_ahead_kb 4. Use LVMs and per VM use its seperate LVM And to solve the large disks issue I am now using FreeNAS (as a VM of course) and connect it to the server using iScsi..such that the server and data are seperate Nice article. I’ve been using vwware for the past 4 years and each year I manage to tweak it a bit more. Many of my clients cant afford those expensive SCSI/fibre channel systems but ext3 can be tweaked…as can be mdadm (software raid)

I use OpenSuse 11 with the kernel heavily optimized…I cut down as much as I can from it.

1. add nodiratime,noatime,commit=60 up to 300 to the mount of the drive
2. set read ahead of drive to 1MB
blockdev –setra 1024 /dev/sda
3. Set read ahead drive cache
echo 256 > /sys/block/sda/queue/read_ahead_kb
4. Use LVMs and per VM use its seperate LVM

And to solve the large disks issue I am now using FreeNAS (as a VM of course) and connect it to the server using iScsi..such that the server and data are seperate

]]> By: phoenixJim http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6378 phoenixJim Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:53:40 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6378 Very interesting article. We are using something similar running a mysql+apache web server in a VM hosted on CentOS5. We started noticing journal errors and the LVM would remount read-only. We are using an ext3 fs but the VMware hard drive is NOT preallocated. We are currently using tune2fs to delete the journal and recreate it. I am now wondering if we should preallocate the VM drive. We are running VMware server on Centos5. We also have a large InnoDB mysql database running on the host. The problem showed worse after converting to a PAE Kernel to get the remaining 13Gb Ram (Only 3Gb Showed up with standard kernel) Very interesting article.
We are using something similar running a mysql+apache web server in a VM hosted on CentOS5.
We started noticing journal errors and the LVM would remount read-only.
We are using an ext3 fs but the VMware hard drive is NOT preallocated.
We are currently using tune2fs to delete the journal and recreate it.

I am now wondering if we should preallocate the VM drive.
We are running VMware server on Centos5.
We also have a large InnoDB mysql database running on the host.

The problem showed worse after converting to a PAE Kernel to get the remaining 13Gb Ram (Only 3Gb Showed up with standard kernel)

]]> By: fornetti http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6375 fornetti Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:19:32 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6375 I do not believe this I do not believe this

]]> By: Joe http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6362 Joe Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:27:08 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6362 Scott, Thanks for this post. Is SQL server still running fine on your VM since you wrote this blog message? Would I be crazy to put SQL server on a VM in a production environment? Scott,

Thanks for this post. Is SQL server still running fine on your VM since you wrote this blog message? Would I be crazy to put SQL server on a VM in a production environment?

]]> By: Scott http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6330 Scott Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:36:38 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6330 I never really bothered much with VMware Workstation hosted on Windows, other than to confirm it is excessively slow compared to hosted on Linux. Everything I do that's using a hosted virtualization platform uses Linux as the host. I never really bothered much with VMware Workstation hosted on Windows, other than to confirm it is excessively slow compared to hosted on Linux. Everything I do that’s using a hosted virtualization platform uses Linux as the host.

]]> By: Richard http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6328 Richard Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:41:43 +0000 http://scottf.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/sql-server-on-vmware-server/#comment-6328 You will have data corruption running SQL 2005 in VMWare Workstation hosted VM with Windows Host OS if you use virtual SCSI disks (the recommended and default option when creating VMs). It would appear that virtual IDE disks are OK. Its easy to demo the problem by running sqliosim.exe testing tool from Microsoft inside any Windows VM using SCSI virtual disks. No need to install SQL to prove there is a problem. VMWare have finally acknowledged there is a BUG (Bug# 288470) in VMWare Workstation. Look out for a fix. Till then, I would suggest you not try run SQL2005 in VM unless you are doing predestrian speed queries. You will have data corruption running SQL 2005 in VMWare Workstation hosted VM with Windows Host OS if you use virtual SCSI disks (the recommended and default option when creating VMs).

It would appear that virtual IDE disks are OK.

Its easy to demo the problem by running sqliosim.exe testing tool from Microsoft inside any Windows VM using SCSI virtual disks. No need to install SQL to prove there is a problem.

VMWare have finally acknowledged there is a BUG (Bug# 288470) in VMWare Workstation. Look out for a fix. Till then, I would suggest you not try run SQL2005 in VM unless you are doing predestrian speed queries.

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